Dark Soy Pork Spare Ribs – 老抽炒排骨
My new food regime of back to basic continues after my steamed pork mince with salted duck egg proven to be a popular dish among food lovers with oriental background and I am so surprised to read how most of us can really relate our childhood memories to this simple dish. I am actually quite enjoying cooking all these simple dishes and able to hear different stories from other readers, love it, keep em coming.
For this particular dish, I don’t think there is even a proper name for it, I simply called it dark soy pork spare ribs (老抽炒排骨), which are the two core ingredients for this recipe.
Talking about pork, the Australian Association of Food Professionals (formerly Food Media Club Australia) has just announced a new category in the biennial Australian Food Media Awards - the Best Australian Food Blog category, proudly sponsored by Australian Pork. It is indeed a very exciting news for Australian food bloggers especially to those who have been blogging for many many years. It is great that all their passions and effort are finally being recognised, and I am just glad to be part of the history making. We will find out more about this award in April, so stay tuned.
Food bloggers and pork go hand in hand. It was hilarious to see there was a sudden uproar of excitement during the launch last night when Stewart White, the president of AAFP announced that Australian Pork is the sponsor for the food blogger award. Even though pork (especially bacon) is on the way out of food trend in US while fried chicken has become the new black for 2010, pork is definitely here to stay in Australia for a lot longer with lots to catch up on. Australian Pork will have a new campaign in 2010, and they are going to “pork” you every night starts from February! Watch it to believe it.
So are you ready to put the pork on your fork tonight?
Now back to my pork dish. The dark soy pork spare ribs (老抽炒排骨) is a dish my mum will cook when there are some off-cuts left over while preparing another dish. It is a super easy quick stir fry with dark soy sauce and sugar. For this particular, we usually used pork spare ribs for its texture with the meaty side on the bottom and the fatty layer on top. You can keep the rind, but I prefer to remove it then grill it as pork crackling for another dish.
However, what I love the most about this dish is the sweet caramelised sauce gravy. The dark soy (or Thick Caramel Sauce) I used is the Cheong Chan brand thick caramel sauce. It has a very thick gooey consistency almost like black tar which has a somewhat sweet and bitter taste to it. It is widely available from any Asian grocers in Sydney. I remember we used to fight for the sauce and drizzle on the steamed rice when we were kids. I can easily devour a whole bowl of steamed rice on its own with just the sweet caramelised sauce and nothing else. I also added garlic and spring onions to the traditional recipe by bringing a whole new depth of flavour to the dish.
Dark soy pork spare ribs recipe - 老抽炒排骨 Ingredients 300 gram pork spare ribs (sliced) 3 cloves garlic sliced 1 stalk spring onions cut into 5cm length 1 tbsp Cheong Chan dark soy thick caramel sauce 2 tbsp light soy sauce 3 tbsp granulated sugar 3 tbps of water Method 1. Heat up the wok with oil, add the pork spare ribs and give it a quick stir fry. 2. Add dark soy, light soy, sugar, water and keep stirring until all pork are nicely coated and let the sauce thicken and caramelised. 3. Turn off the heat, add garlic and spring onions. Give it a quick stir and is ready to served.
A Table For Two (ATFT) is Billy Law's food blog that features best eats in Sydney and around the world with drool-worthy food photography to salivate your appetite. I also throw in a smidgen of my food and travel photography for good measure. Billy Law also happened to be a contestant on MasterChef Australia 2011. 
Back to basics it may be but definitely not basic flavours! Love these recipes, so yum!
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The color on those spare ribs is absolutely amazing!
This looks wickedly good Billy! I’m ready for some pork!
.-= Peter G´s last blog ..El Atol de Elote-A taste of El Salvador =-.
Looks sooooo good!!!
I also want to see that dish you had made loooong loooong time ago – tea flavoured spiced braised pork thingy with boiled egg in it. What’s that called???
.-= Yas @ hungry.digital.elf´s last blog ..Macrobiotic cooking =-.
My late mother and my aunt make this with plain pork meat, dark soy, soy, loads of white pepper powder, and sugar. I loved the sauce over white rice than anything else.
.-= Rasa Malaysia´s last blog ..KL Hokkien Mee =-.
Love the pic of the spare ribs over white rice. Yum!
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I love this sort of food.
If you have no name for the dish, maybe you should make one up! How about: 釴湖肉? Though I guess that is also not so creative.
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Looks like heaven on a plate. Love that wickedly dark sauce
.-= Y´s last blog ..Back to it, a pillow cheesecake and a giveaway. =-.
That looks sooooo delicious!
I can almost smell and taste them
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老抽炒排骨，好吃又好味！
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I’m loving your back to basics series Billy! Fantastic dish – thanks for the tip on which soy to use – I always have trouble knowing what is the best soy to use for different Chinese dishes.
.-= Trissa´s last blog ..In Search of Perfection… Lychee Perfection =-.
Oi Billy I’ve been looking everywhere for a recipe like this! Hahaha oohh and can’t wait to be “porked” everynight… hmm that didn’t sound right….. Anypoop, can’t wait to see all the single ladies action hahaha
ooohhh.. tau you bak!! hahhahaha. my all time favourite dish.. works well with some pieces of fatty pork(i use some sum chum bak and mui yok..) so when you drizzle the sauce over your rice, it coats it with a thin layer of pork oil that is so so yummmmy!! gooodilicious….
This brings back lots of good childhood memories. My mom used to cook this dish all the time. It’s time to heat up my wok
.-= Ellie´s last blog ..Roasted Pork Belly with Garlic and Char Siu Sauce =-.
That looks incredibly good. I’m envisioning it with a bowlful of hot rice, and some cucumbers on the side – ultimate comfort food..
.-= Chris´s last blog ..The Best Meal We Had In New Zealand =-.
There is something very touching about seeing a guy cook a homely dish like this… that photo of serving this with white rice is priceless – that’s the one that activates the saliva ducts!
.-= Kokken69´s last blog ..Tea At Kyani Mumbai : Of Bun Maska, Mawa Cake & Shrewsbury Cookies =-.
That is one great photo… you can just reach out and grab those ribs!!!
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This looks like spectacular dish for pork. I can’t get over how rich and caramel-y the sauce looks. Great job!
mmm.. my mouth is watering! my mom made these growing up. thanks so much for posting the recipe, it seems simple enough for me to attempt? first i need to find that cheong chan sauce.
The dish that changed my life was Dark Soy Pork Spare Ribs. Your recipe, incidentally, not that I am trying to get brownie points or anything, but read on and you’ll see why.
When I first moved to Melbourne, I missed home food terribly. In Malaysia, food is cheap and available at all hours. Here I was in Australia, living on my own for the first time, and I realised that I had never really learnt to cook Asian food because Grandma always did the cooking at home!
I’d been living on my own and eating frozen meat pies for a whole year – I’d given up on cooking at all because nothing tasted like home and after all the hassle of cooking, there was cleaning up! Why bother at all? So meat pies for every meal it was. I didn’t like them, but at least it was easy. I had tried cooking stuff like Hainanese Chicken Rice or Sweet Sour Pork before, but it never had that Malaysian-homestyle taste or feel.
Then I stumbled on your pictures for Dark Soy Pork Spare Ribs, looked at the recipe and there was only six ingredients (not counting the water) and three steps! How hard could it be right? I added all the ingredients to the wok and watched carefully, trying not to get my hopes up.
There’s something magical about those few simple ingredients coming together to form an oozy, thick, sweet sauce. I made that dish for the next three days – and every week after that. I slowly added dishes to my repertoire – just one or two a week and I have never looked back. Now I live to cook, rather than cook to live!
I have never eaten a meat pie since, not even at the footy. Today, the thought of meat pies alone makes me nauseous. Thanks for making good food simple to cook, even for total noobs like me.